Mary Williams, of The Ridings, Cobham, admitted failing to provide routine farrier care to her chestnut mare, Whyd, at Reigate Magistrates Court. The 59-year-old school teacher admitted causing unnecessary suffering to the 15-year-old mare. Williams received a conditional discharge for three years, and was ordered to pay costs of £2,498.56 at a rate of £80 a month, taking more than two-and-a-half years to pay off the sum. But Tony Tyler, director of UK operations for the International League for the Protection of Horses (ILPH), said: “The message such a lenient sentence sends will not deter others from blatant neglect of their horses.” Field officer Ted Barnes, of the ILPH, was involved in the action taken against Williams. He said the feet of one of her ponies had been so seriously neglected the weight of each excess horn after being trimmed was more than three-quarters of a kilogram. Ted said: “When I went to Williams’ yard I was horrified at what I found. I have seen some things in my nine years in this job but this has to be by far the worst case of blatant neglect by someone who really understood what the consequences would be to the pony. “When the specialist farrier had trimmed the feet I really couldn’t believe how much each excess hoof weighed.” Mr Barnes first went to Williams’ Leatherhead stables in April, after being contacted by Surrey Police, and called in a veterinary surgeon. “The vet attended and said these were the longest feet he had ever seen on a horse,” said Mr Barnes. “The horse was taken to a safe holding where it underwent X-rays on its feet and then corrective surgery. “The farrier used an electric hacksaw to take 1lb 10oz of surplus horn from each foot. It was surgery to all intents and purposes.” Mr Barnes said Whyd’s future remains far from certain, and that the damage the neglect had caused her feet could prove irreparable. “This is not common, thank god,” he said. “This horse was crippled and had been lame for a long time because it had suffered from laminitis — a disease where the animal eats too much. “The weight snowballs and the feet get very hot. That was exacerbated because the horse had not seen a farrier for at least 12 months I would have thought. Normally they are done every six weeks, like your toenails. “Whyd is still not out of the woods. She has been in custody since April and the surgeons are still not hopeful that the tendons in her legs will heal. She is still on medication anti-inflammatories and pain killers, to allow the feet to grow so they can be trimmed to the correct shape.” Mr Barnes, who gathers evidence to act as a witness for the police in cases of neglect, has received 150 complaints of poor equine management from members of the public so far this year, the majority of which involve cases of emaciation and cruelty. He said the courts do not always return the penalties the ILPH asks for and feels would be just. “I have been in the industry long enough to know that the sentence is really irrelevant to us,” Mr Barnes said. “We can't do any more than do our job properly. “We asked for a ban so she couldn’t keep horses but the court felt unable to do that.” He said the ILPH had been “keeping an eye” on Williams’ horses for some time before Whyd was seized, and that the RSPCA will continue to do so. Nicky Thorne, of the RSPCA, said: “When I interviewed Williams, I asked if she understood the consequences of the neglect shown to Whyd’s hooves. She explained to me in great detail exactly what they were. In my eyes, it shows that this was a case not of ignorance, but of blatant neglect.” Whyd will remain in the care of the ILPH at Hall Farm in Norfolk for the foreseeable future.